They also have UFA's who they might sign in Jokinen $(3M), Pyatt ($1.55M), Glass ($1.1M), Vitale ($0.55M), Orpik ($3.75M), and Niskanen ($2.3M)

Of the FA they need to sign 7 forwards and 2 d-men with just short of $16M in cap space.

Here are my estimates on approximately what it will cost to sign those guys or their equivalent.Sutter at $3.5MGlass at $1.5MVitale at $0.75MSill at $0.6MMegna at $0.6MGibbons at $0.6M Despres at $1.2M (hard to guess this one as giving 1 way contract and contract length will have a big effect)Orpik/Niskanen at $4M

That will leave $3.23M to sign one forward and leave yourself some cap space for call ups. Or you could let both Orpik and Niskanen walk and call up Dumoulin at a cap hit of $0.832M and have $6.4M in cap space to sign the other forward. To most people here that probably sounds appealing, but then you have to look at who the UFA's available are. http://capgeek.com/free-agents/?year_id ... _type_id=2 and remember that pretty much every team is going to have money to spend.

If you are Shero do you let both Orpik and Niskanen walk and then try to sign one of these high cost UFA's? Do you let them walk and try to sign two of the UFA's at roughly $3M a piece or do you sign Orpik or Niskanen and then try to get a lower priced UFA to fill in? You could also sign one of Orpik/Niskanen and a lower cost UFA this summer and look to trade a D-man next season for a younger and lower cap hit forward, which would then allow you to move Dumoulin up to replace that D-man. To me the last approach is the ideal way to go about it as you get a younger forward at a lower cap hit than the FA route allows, but it's also the most difficult to pull off.

Antonio wrote:yeah I can definitely see this argument and in many ways I can agree with it. However, I think that he could be a very solid 6/7 or even possibly lower second pairing guy who has a big body and very physical presence which is relatively rare. I would hate to give him up for something like a rental, especially considering how valuable depth can be and considering that I think he brings a few qualities that we lack on the blue line. also I think he might have progressed a little better with a little more playing time and less bylsma slow aging veteran bias. has to be hard to develop confidence effectively when you are in and out of a line up for any little mistake.

When you have Despres, Harrington, Pouliot, Dumoulin, Samuellson, Ruopp etc, waiting in the wings, you can afford to give up a depth defenseman for a rental. This team is in win now mode.

If that was our top 6 defensemen in 4 years, I wonder how good they all would be?? Seems like a load of assets, I can't see trying to sign Niskanen when you got replacements waiting in the wings who can come in on a entry level contract and open cap space. Or like you said trade one and get a piece we need.